all around good??

[wild_card]

Is there a certain brand or model scanner that covers "all " or most of everything , police , fire ,trains, hams, ect ? a family member offered to help me out on a purchase of one with in means im ball parking 250 or less i have an old sears with 10 crystals in it and a pro 94 handheld and would just like to upgrade to an indoor desktop model with an option to connect an outdoor antenna for later if needed . I live in the Rochester Mn area and dont know how far scanners reach or what requirements are needed any input would be great once again thanks in advance !

[BobCB]

It really all depends on if your area is digital or not. From what I'm seeing for Rochester, MN, it looks like most of your local stuff is on regular VHF or UHF FM, with a few trunked systems. I don't see any digital users for your county. It looks like there is a statewide network listed for your county that is digital, but other than that I don't see much. Check out the link below and see if you can make anything out of it. If your are wanting to listen to digital then a Radioshack Pro 96 can be had for the price you mentioned. That will cover everything you mentioned as well as the MN statewide network. If you only want analog then I would reccomend the Uniden BC246T. I can vouch for both as I own both of them and they are great. Either way you will need a trunking scanner. The stock antenna should be all that you will need as far as range.

http://www.radioreference.com ... /?sid=3508

[yMidnite]

The newer version PRO-106 (handheld) or the PRO-197 (base) will be on sale Black Friday for 299.99 (100 off). You should be able to get it early (price match) like I did, sort of.

Either way when you get into the trunking systems you would benefit from the programming programs.

[wild_card]

with something like thee above mentioned i could also listen to ham correct ? ... i dont think my pro 94 has that option

[BobCB]

Most any scanner will be able to monitor ham radio. The majority of non crystal-controlled scanners can listen to ham, and for that matter you can monitor ham with a crystal scanner if you find and buy the right crystal for the frequency you want to monitor.

Looking at the info for your Pro-94, it does cover both the VHF and UHF ham bands.

[wild_card]

i guess i'll have to do some homework and find the bands worth listening to i dont know a heck of alot about freq's all i know is plug in an am cb and spin the dial !

[Night Crawler]

i guess i'll have to do some homework and find the bands worth listening to i dont know a heck of alot about freq's all i know is plug in an am cb and spin the dial !

Live MN Police audio feed http://www.radioreference.com ... ?ctid=1314

Scanner Directory http://www.cityfreq.com/mn

Amateur Repeater Directory http://www.artscipub.com/repe ... =Minnesota

This Amateur Repeater is not in Minnesota but it's fun to listen to.
http://www.radioreference.com ... eedId=4746

['Doc]

I think the best advice would be to figure up what bands you want to be able to cover, and what modes you want to be able to receive. From there, it's a matter of what you can afford. The more a scanner is able to 'do' the more it will cost. That 'all mode' part will typically put you into the higher-end class of scanner. If you are thinking of the digital modes, think 'order of magnitude' kind of price increases for a 'stand-alone' type scanner (if there are any?) and you definitely have left the "used Radio Shack" kind of scanners behind!
And no matter which scanner you decide on, the absolute bestest additional advice is to get the antenna as high as possible.
- 'Doc

[barhopper 1]

I live not to far from Rochester, mn.( about 45miles away) I have a Radio Shack Pro 2067 multi-system trunking scanner that I can program 500 freq. in 10-50 channel banks(way more than I need) but it covers everything that I want to hear in this area up to 900mhz. the antenna I use is just a plug in the back of the scanner by radio shack but you can buy em on ebay. I can hear police calls from Albert Lea MN and I live in Austin. I can also monitor police calls from counties northern Iowa with no problem. the 2067 is a mobile unit but I have it hook-up to a old cobra power supply with a Barjan external speaker and I'm satisfied with it. just go shop around on-line and I'm sure you'll find what you need. Rochester is in a kinda of a valley and I dont get much reception from there with-out an external antenna so you might want a external antenna for your area if you want good reception beyond Rochester.